Product Description

Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties is the new, hour-long documentary from Robert Greenwald – one of the most prolific and progressive producers in Hollywood – in conjunction with the ACLU. This new film, written, directed and produced by Nonny de la Peña, details the shocking way that the civil liberties of American citizens and immigrants alike have been infringed upon, curtailed and rolled back since 9/11 and the USA Patriot Act.

Autumn of 2001 brought us assaults against Americans' comfort zone on many fronts. We learned that we could fall victim to attacks on US soil, and we learned that those guarantees provided to us in the Constitution were equally vulnerable.

Unconstitutional is the third in a series of Public Interest Pictures films that follows Unprecedented: The 2000 Election and Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War. True to their legacy, Unconstitutional provides the facts and stories that illuminate administration lies, wrongheaded policies and the real victims of these actions – the American people.

Here, you'll get the real story behind the USA PATRIOT Act and other administration policies and the gut wrenching stories behind those affected – from law abiding sales clerks to United States Olympians unable to travel. It'll remind you of what America used to stand for and what it seems we're falling for now. In short, this film will affirm why you're angry and give you a tool to help others join your ranks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25590 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-05
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 68 minutes

Amazon.com
Completing a trilogy that should be required viewing for all Americans, Unconstitutional explicitly reveals how the USA Patriot Act violates numerous civil liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Following the equally persuasive documentaries Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election and Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, this film presents powerful and tragic examples of how the USA Patriot Act--passed with virtually no Congressional debate just 45 days after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01--has been used to justify the unconstitutional arrest of innocent immigrants based on Arab stereotyping; the illegal detention of vaguely defined "suspects" and their improper treatment (including beatings and torture) during extended confinement; prisoner abuse of alleged terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay military prison; the allowance of improper search and seizure without due cause; prohibited travel based on racial profiling; bully tactics employed with impunity by local police in efforts to undermine free speech; and other clear indications of the Patriot Act's unconstitutional enforcement. The more personal these stories of violation are, the more gut-wrenching is the realization that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft--and by extension, the George W. Bush administration--have used the Patriot Act to justify what is essentially a dictatorial police state.

Sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and full of bipartisan testimony by lawyers, politicians, and victims of Patriot Act abuse, Unconstitutional makes an eloquent case for the careful interpretation of Constitutional law, exploring rising opposition to Patriot Act abuses while exposing how many of our freedoms have been undermined in the name of post-9/11 security. Regardless of your political affiliation, this is a chilling reminder of how seemingly good intentions can corrupt even our most cherished American values. --Jeff Shannon

About the Actor
About the Director:

Filmmaker Nonny De La Peña (The Jaundiced Eye, 1999) began her career as a journalist as a CNN intern and later became a stringer for Time Magazine and a correspondent for Newsweek Magazine. Deciding to pursue documentary film, Nonny became an Associate Producer for HBO and her first film Death on the Job was nominated for an Academy Award. Now a Producer/ Director/Writer with her own production company, Pyedog Productions, Nonny continues her tradition of investigative journalism for BBC's Omnibus & Inside Story, A&E's Investigative Reports, HBO's America Undercover and The Discovery Channel, among others.

Customer Reviews

ESSENTIAL.
See it and vote on Nov. 2. I disagree with an earlier reviewer who compares the film to those of Michael Moore. There is nothing tongue-in-cheek in UNCONSITUTIONAL, no use of humor to dampen or soften the blow of this documentary. This is as serious as they get. Very compelling film. Should be required viewing for everyone BEFORE they vote. Big props to director Nonny de la Peña and producer Robert Greenwald (responsible for the other "UN" docs and the potent "OUTFOXED") for making this vital, necessary film. As UNCONSTITUTIONAL points out, there was no debate on The Patriot Act before Congress passed it. Now is the time to have that debate, in the public arena.

Hardly Patriotic and Sadly Invasive...Scary Insights Abound
It's about time someone delved into the repercussions of the Bush administration's Patriot Act, a hurried piece of legislation that was supposed to provide us a safeguard against terrorists. Director Nonny de la Pena, under the supervision of Robert Greenwald (who directed the blistering "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism", also strongly recommended) has made an eye-opening, sometimes shocking documentary that brings new, unfiltered light to the underbelly of the Patriot Act. Subjected to last-minute additions and changes before passing that dramatically altered its orientation, it has had a significant and heretofore unknown impact on our civil liberties, and the film pulls no punches in outlining those violations. De la Pena asserts that many of the provisions in the Patriot Act have little to do with terrorism and were just changes that various conservative Republicans wanted for a long time.

The invasion of privacy highlighted is enormous. According to the film, the government can now demand customer records from stores and conduct sneak-peek searches in people's homes without a warrant. There is no limit to what the Patriot Act allows, and the original purpose has been lost. The documentary does provide good news in that the officials who actually passed it are beginning to question its effectiveness and clamoring for public debate about it. De la Pena even interviews Representative Robert Barr, one of the more conservative members of Congress, who is quite open about his concerns regarding the credence of the Act. But the most telling portion of the documentary is the story of the Hamouis, a Syrian family who owned a grocery store in Seattle for over a decade. Under the guidelines of the Patriot Act, the government arrested and detained them, not allowing them access to many of the rights due even to criminals. They were held with only vague charges even though for all intents and purposes, the Hamouis are "American". And even after the FBI cleared them, they remained in jail for months, with little legal recourse. This is exactly the racist world that conservative muckraker Michelle Malkin proposes in her disturbing book, "In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror", and it's sad to realize that it is coming into fruition. De la Pena shows how mistaken identities lump the good in with the bad, and the Patriot Act allowed innocent citizens to be removed from Florida voter rolls for having names similar to those of felons. This is essential viewing for anyone who values the U.S Constitution and champions the battle against intolerance.

We have to put a stop to this!!
This depressing and eye-opening documentary shows the severe abuses of civil liberties for immigrants and U.S. citizens. We detain people we suspect of terrorism indefinitely in Guantanamo Bay. The vast majority of these people have no links to terrorism what so ever. In addition, in the weeks after 9/11, we deported hundreds of people of Middle East origin back to their countries secretly with their families still living in the U.S. unaware of what had happened.

Latin Americans, people who converted to Islam, or people who look slightly Middle Eastern have also been a victim to these disgusting abuses of civil liberties.

Nobody would like their mother or father to be discriminated against, arrested and held indefinitely simply because of their faith or the way they look. America has chosen to put these people in Guantanamo Bay indefinitely because it is not on American soil so American laws don't apply, neither do Geneva conventions.

If we follow the USA Patriot Act and allow these civil rights abuses to continue, then the terrorists have won. We have all started suspecting each other and going against each other. What we have to do is show tolerance and stick together.

I highly recommend this eye-opening documentary. It is very moving. Every human being, whether they are American or not, has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's what we have been taught since we were born.